Firstwave, Surebridge Latest to Join Acquisitions Parade

Firstwave Technologies Inc. and Surebridge Inc. on Tuesday became the latest technology companies to announce acquisitions in a week that has already been heavy in consolidation in the software and services space.
In a cash-stock deal, Firstwave, a CRM software developer, scooped up Connect-Care Inc., a company that develops CRM software specifically for other software companies. At Tuesdays closing price, the deal was worth $2.87 million in stock and also includes a potential cash payment of $300,000 if certain revenues are met by next year.
Firstwave will continue to support Connect-Care products, though company officials said they expect Connect-Care customers will eventually migrate to Firstwave software. Atlanta-based Firstwave also expects Connect-Care customers to develop their own private-label vertical solutions using Firstwaves CORE integrated development environment.

Jeffrey Longoria, president and co-founder of Alpharetta, Ga.-based Connect-Care, joins Firstwave as vice president of sales.

Surebridge, meanwhile, is consolidating the ASP (application services provider) industry with its acquisition of ManagedOps.com Inc. The acquisition will allow the companies to combine their Microsoft Business Solutions hosting businesses. The new organization will be based in ManagedOps Bedford, N.H., location.
Surebridge will continue selling outsourcing services for Microsoft Business Solutions outside of the New England area through the channels established by ManagedOps. The combined company will have approximately 1,000 clients, officials said.
Surebridge, based in Lexington, Mass., last October acquired TransChannel, an Atlanta-based company that specialized in managing and hosting PeopleSoft Inc. applications for middle market clients.

In acquisitions announced Monday:

Kamoon Inc., a software company playing in the "expertise management" niche, acquired ActionBase, which develops project and process execution software. Kamoon, of Fort Lee, N.J., plans to incorporate ActionBases software into its Kamoon Connect product, creating a new product called Connect Actions. The acquisition will add collaboration and workflow capabilities to Kamoons offerings, enabling knowledge workers to track results, tasks, decisions and action items that develop from the knowledge sharing process.

The CMGI Inc. sell-off continued with database marketing company InfoUSA Inc., of Omaha, Neb., buying e-mail marketer YesMail Inc., a CMGI company. InfoUSA plans to add Chicago-based YesMails e-mail deployment and automation and brokering and management businesses to its own e-mail marketing portfolio.

And Web content management ASPs iUpload and WebPartz announced a merger. The new company will be known as iUpload, also known as SurfMap Inc. Officials of both companies said the merger will combine Burlington, Ontario-based iUploads strengths in managing staff-created content with Mississauga, Ontario-based WebPartzs strong suit of application and site visitor-generated content management.
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